Chapter 5
I ran upstairs.
Detective Ruiz followed with her weapon drawn.
By the time we reached Sophie’s bedroom, the figure had disappeared.
The window was still locked.
On the outside sill, someone had left the gold locket.
Ruiz stopped me before I touched it.
“Let the technicians handle it.”
“That belonged to my wife.”
“And someone used it to lure you.”
Sophie woke when the officers turned on the lights.
She saw the locket through the glass.
“Mommy’s necklace!”
I lifted her from bed.
She was shaking.
“Was that Amanda?”
“I don’t know.”
But the person had known exactly which window belonged to Sophie.
My security company sent footage from the backyard.
The figure had entered through the neighboring property, keeping their face hidden.
The limp gave Ryan away again.
Ruiz watched the recording.
“Your brother wants you frightened.”
“He succeeded.”
“No. He wants you reckless. Don’t give him that.”
We moved to my mother’s house before dawn.
I hired a licensed security guard and changed every access code connected to our accounts.
My attorney, Leah Grant, arrived at breakfast.
She had represented my company for nine years and never wasted words.
“The transfer document cannot legally move the house without proper filing,” she said. “But Amanda and Ryan submitted it yesterday.”
“Before the wedding?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“A notary named Paul Mercer verified your signature.”
“I’ve never met him.”
Leah placed a photograph on the table.
I recognized him immediately.
He had introduced himself at the rehearsal dinner as Amanda’s uncle.
“He isn’t her uncle,” Leah said. “He lost his notary commission two years ago.”
“So the document is worthless?”
“Legally, probably. But Ryan used it to secure a private loan against the property.”
“How much?”
“Eight hundred thousand dollars.”
My mother gasped.
I stared at Leah.
“Who lends that kind of money overnight?”
“A company called Northstar Capital.”
“Who owns it?”
“We’re tracing that.”
Sophie entered wearing pajamas and holding my mother’s hand.
I put the papers away.
She climbed into my lap.
“Are we poor now?”
The question crushed me.
“No, sweetheart.”
“Amanda said we would be.”
My mother closed her eyes.
“What else did she say?” I asked gently.
“If I made her leave, you would lose the house. Then you would blame me.”
I held Sophie tighter.
“That will never happen.”
“She said Mommy wanted you to find someone better.”
Grace had once told me she hoped I would love again.
I had shared that private memory with Amanda.
Now I understood how she had used it.
“What did you tell her?” I asked.
“I said Mommy meant someone nice.”
Despite everything, I almost smiled.
“You were right.”
After breakfast, a child advocate named Claire came to speak with Sophie.
I stayed nearby but out of the room.
Every few minutes, I heard Sophie’s small voice.
She described the pantry.
She described Amanda pinching her arms where clothing would hide the marks.
She described being forced to kneel beside her bed because she had asked to call me.
Then Claire asked if anyone else had hurt her.
There was a long silence.
“Uncle Ryan scared me.”
My heart stopped.
“How?” Claire asked.
“He came at night.”
“When Daddy was home?”
Sophie said something too softly for me to hear.
Claire opened the door.
“Mr. Miller, I need you.”
I sat beside my daughter.
She would not look at me.
“Tell Daddy what you told me,” Claire said.
Sophie twisted the hem of her shirt.
“Uncle Ryan came when you took the sleeping medicine.”
“I don’t take sleeping medicine.”
“Amanda put it in your tea.”
I remembered waking with headaches.
Several nights were hazy.
I had blamed stress from the wedding.
“What did Ryan do?”
“He used your office.”
“Did he touch you?”
She shook her head quickly.
Relief hit me so hard it hurt.
“He told me if I came downstairs, he would make Daddy disappear.”
Claire asked whether she knew what Ryan did in my office.
Sophie nodded.
“He took pictures.”
“Of what?”
“The papers in the secret drawer.”
Only Grace and I had known about that drawer.
It contained the original documents for Sophie’s trust.
I checked the office camera remotely.
The recordings from those nights had been erased.
But cloud storage kept an activity log.
Someone had deleted footage using my password.
Leah examined the login history.
“The access came from Amanda’s phone.”
Ruiz called an hour later.
Police had found Ryan’s abandoned car near the river.
Inside were fake identification cards, cash, and a bottle of the same prescription sedative detected in a cup recovered from my kitchen.
There was also blood on the driver’s seat.
“Is it his?” I asked.
“We don’t know yet.”
Then Ruiz’s voice changed.
“We found a second phone.”
“His?”
“It contains a scheduled message to Amanda.”
“What does it say?”
May you like
She read it to me.
“If Daniel finds out, take Sophie. He will sign anything to get her back.”
